166 THE YOUNG 



head, and the head is nearly all mouth. It 

 lies at the bottom of rock pools, and seems 

 to have the power of assimilating its colour 

 to the sand or rock on which it rests. If 

 any smaller animal than itself comes near 

 enough, it raises itself up, using its tail as a 

 lever, opens its wide mouth 



" And ere a man had poorer to say behold. 

 The jaws of bullhead had devoured it up, 

 So quick brigbt things come to confusion." 



Having got its prey within its capacious 

 jaws, it closes them with a snap, sinks to 

 the bottom again, and lies there " motion- 

 less and blest " till another unwary fish or 

 crustacean swims near it, when the same 

 process is gone through again. It is just 

 like opening an oven door and shutting it 

 again. This monster would live well enough 

 in my aquarium, but it would not " live and 

 let live," and it was too uninteresting to be 

 worth the loss of every thing else. 



I have frequently tried to get young 

 Herring home alive, but never could suc- 

 ceed. They seemed so delicate, so suscep- 

 tible, that with my restricted contrivances I 

 never got them home. They only occur in 

 rock pools at very low water, but in the 

 latter part of the year they are easily caught 

 in large numbers, coming into the docks and 

 harbours as well as being abundant in the 

 open sea. It is a pretty sight to see a shoal 

 of them in a rock pool. The clear crystal 

 water does not in the slightest impede the 

 vision, and the fish are so bright and silvery, 

 and their movements are so rapid that I 

 could always watch them till I was driven 

 back by the rising tide, and I have more 

 than once had to wade (locally " plodge ") 

 to the shore. When they come into the 

 harbours, or the locked docks, they may be 

 easily taken with a net. It is very pretty to 

 watch them from the quay walls, sometimes 

 thousands upon thousands of them, their 

 silvery bellies glistening as they dart up 

 and down. Then there will be a rush of a 

 big fish through the water, generally a 



NATURALIST. 



species locally called the Horse Mackerel, 

 the Herring sprats dart off in consternation, 

 but some unfortunate victim disappears 

 down the throat of the Horse Mackerel, 

 which then sinks out of sight, and in a few 

 minutes the young herring are swimming 

 about as before. 



A very curious fish here called the Lump 

 fish or Sucker is sometimes found in our 

 rock pools. The fins on the under side are 

 united, forming a sucking disc by which it 

 is able to fix itself to the rock, perfectly 

 motionless till a suitable prey approaches it, 

 when it quits its place of attachment, return- 

 ing to it or another after its excursion. Only 

 once have I found one of these fishes small 

 enough to put in my aquarium, and I cannot 

 say it was particularly interesting. It attach- 

 ed itself to a stone, and though it changed its 

 position more than once before it died, I 

 never was fortunate enough to observe its 

 motions. I was very curious to observe 

 whether it quitted its hold instantly or with 

 as much difficulty as it seemed to have the 

 first and only time I saw it attach itself, but 

 I was never there when it moved. If any 

 of your readers have been more fortunate 

 than myself I would be glad to know. If it 

 could not do so, I cannot understand how it 

 would capture its food, and it looked such 

 a clumsy " lump" of a fish that one might as 

 soon expect to see an elephant doing a waltz 

 as one of those creatures moving with any 

 degree of celerity. 



(To be continued.) 



INSECTS WHICH FEED 

 UPON WHITETHORN. 



LEPIDOPTERA. 

 May. 



Pieris crataegi Bomb, quercus 



Nola cuculatella Cro. elinguaria 

 Lip. chrysorrhea, e. Hem. thymiaria 



